Wishmaker
by WriteInWhite
Summary: Taylor Roberts is in love with the best possible, worst possible boy: James Alden, rich, handsome, and already taken. Taylor's set to let him go, but James's older brother Michael has other plans, plans that put her on a collision course with Saffron City's newest power couple. Is he doing it for her? Probably not. But whatever secret Michael's hiding, Taylor intends to find out.


**Chapter 1: Yearn**

Saffron Academy's latest rumor said James Alden was dating Vera Marvin.

It started with a tiny blond freshman named Cammie telling everyone she knew that she'd spied James licking pumpkin frappe off Vera's lips at Cleffa's Café that afternoon. One hour and it warped into the biggest drama on campus, hail to the Academy's thriving gossip culture. Lana Lambert, editor of the school newspaper, even flirted with putting it all on the front page of the _Messenger_, but decided eventually to keep up appearances with such proper news as Homecoming and new clubs and the bookstore's fifty-percent off sale. James and Vera instead habited a two page spread on the inside cover, complete with full color photo courtesy of aspiring young paparazzi Cammie Kay.

That didn't so much reflect the depraved state of Lana's journalistic spirit as it did the staggering fame of James and Vera. Or, actually, the staggering fame of their older siblings: half the _Messenger _story reported the caustic, casualty-dealing demise of big brother Michael and big sister Anna's treacherous love affair, remarked upon none-too-fondly by Lana herself, who wondered publicly in the paper how many innocents James and Vera would notch in the weeks to come.

Taylor Roberts was prospective casualty number one. Taylor was the kind of girl who wore her hair in the same ponytail every day and found out about school-wide rumors from a copy of the _Messenger_ left in the library. She was the kind of girl who cried finding James and Vera on the second page and ran to hide in the bathroom when people started staring. She was the kind of girl who, behind the blue door of the cold, cramped stall, whispered over and over, "I don't love him, I don't love him," because she knew it was death to a girl's ego to love a boy involved with Vera.

To put off crying, Taylor bribed the school secretary for Vera's practice schedule with one of Cleffa's now-infamous pumpkin frappes, and learned Vera's partner for the Homecoming tournament was James Alden. Saturday afternoon she dragged her friend Zachary to the battle complex under the pretense of training and pushed her way to Field Four through the crowd of other students come to ogle Saffron Academy's latest scandal. From the sideline she endured the sight of James and Vera laughing together at some joke she couldn't hear, obviously a team, and more obviously infatuated.

Headshots of the two appeared on the giant video board: Vera Marvin, Rank 1 & James Alden, Rank 2. Taylor played through her head various romantic scenarios in which the lead was no longer her, but Vera. She felt she wanted to cry.

She didn't. She watched the entire battle, which was so short and overwhelming one-sided the opposing two sophomores abandoned their championship aspirations right there. The moment it ended she ran to the dorms and, without a word to her roommate, buried herself under the covers. She forgot Zachary entirely.

She concluded from the nest of her bed that she had two choices: she could fight and lose, or she could lose.

But she wanted to win. She'd been running from battles for months and she was sick of it. She'd been pining for James for years and she was sick of that too. So she threw off her covers and found her phone and dialed one-half the Academy's latest, greatest scandal. He said "Hello?" like he didn't know her, and she answered a little too loudly, half on purpose, half because she was terrified: "Battle me!"

(-o-)

The adrenalin wearing off left Taylor to understand she'd made a mistake. James, on the other side of the field, prepared slowly to murder her. Vera, standing too close to James, argued she should get to do the murdering, because she was Vera, because she wanted to, because she pulled at the collar of her low-cut shirt and smiled her pretty smile. They volleyed in the manner reserved for lovers and James settled it with an overzealous kiss that brought all of Taylor's adrenalin surging back and out her mouth in another massive mistake, shouting, "I'll battle you both!"

James declined, but Vera punched him in the arm and said, "Drop the gentleman crap, she wants to!" So Taylor stared down two colossal pokemon instead of one, wishing she'd stuck to being a coward.

Headshots of the happy couple looked down at her from the left side of the video board. The right side lit moments after, and below her own face Taylor saw Michael Alden's. She blinked at the board a few times, disbelieving the matter-of-fact black script reading Taylor Roberts, Rank 1343 & Michael Alden, Rank 10.

James stared at her across the field as if expecting his brother in disguise. Vera laughed looking at the board, then stopped abruptly and stared with him. Taylor turned around to Michael Alden stepping up beside her on the platform. He smelled like coffee and cologne and last night's company; he looked like he'd rather be in bed, his shirt half-buttoned and his belt undone. His still, unblinking stare expressed a deep displeasure with her, as if it were Taylor who'd woken him from steeping in his bad reputation. But he said "So you're not a coward," in an amused sort of voice and released a pitch-black gengar into the air, officially invested.

The ghost circled James's machamp and Vera's pinsir, making all manner of rude faces. She heard James yell across the field, "This has nothing to do with you!" and silently agreed. She thought to say so but failed to pluck the appropriate words from her white static thoughts.

"Did you miss me?" Michael asked. His gengar drifted toward the younger Alden, blowing loud raspberries; Taylor realized he was speaking to James. "You used to cry when I left you behind."

The ghost giggled, pointing and faking tears. Taylor imagined a young James bawling at his brother's back, begging to be taken along.

"Go to hell. Let's start already."

She couldn't remember ever having seen James pout.

"Pick a flying type," Michael said. Taylor released her swellow, Persi, beside Michael's grinning gengar, who greeted the bird by pretending to swallow him. Michael flashed two fingers and the ghost desisted, waving good-bye before sinking into the stadium floor.

"Look, maybe you like to play knight for girls in distress but I really don't need you," she said.

"This is a personal errand. Don't misunderstand." He pointed her head back to the field. "Belphegor, start with something pretty."

The gengar reappeared between the machamp and pinsir, cackling as he tossed purple _will-o-wisp _fire at both. James shouted, "Fire punch," but the machamp struck dirt as Belphegor escaped back into the floor.

James and Vera conspired for a moment before commanding _thunder punch _and _earthquake, _respectively. The pinsir slammed the stadium floor and the machamp leapt after Taylor's swellow, connecting despite her yells to dodge. Michael's disoriented gengar floated up from the shattered ground to catch the falling bird, upon which both James and Vera ordered _stone edge._

"Bel," said Michael. "Pattern C-12."

Belphegor shot skyward hailing _shadow balls_, still cradling Taylor's swellow. Taylor recited the various strategies she'd learned for exploiting an aerial advantage under her breath before deciding to follow Michael's lead, calling "Air slash!"

But it was hard to aim through the exploding dust. Bel looked out of his mind, both arms free and flailing. Stubby cannons rained I-want-to-hurt-you indiscriminately, and without a better option Persi took the same approach. Similarly blind to the field, Taylor looked over at Michael and found him checking his phone.

"At least pay attention if you're going to help!"

"I didn't say I wanted to help."

He raised four fingers and the bombardment ceased. Almost immediately Vera's pinsir hurtled at Persi, launched by a well-aimed _seismic toss_. Bel slammed the bug back to the dirt with _fire punch, _already prepared to intercept.

"Then why are you battling?" Taylor asked.

Michael gestured to the stands. She looked around at nearly the entire campus staring back. A buzz began to build, climbing higher as James ordered, "Flamethrower!" into the air and fire streaked the sky. Her heart raced.

"Persi, dive and mirror move! Aim for the bug!" she yelled. Her swellow complied with a beautiful dive bomb and fairly impressive gout of flame, singeing Vera's pinsir. Persi twisted out of reach of the bug's pincers just in time, drawing well-appreciated 'oohs' from the crowd.

"UP!" she screamed, and her swellow flew to the ceiling as Vera ordered, "Focus blast!"

Persi wove through the stadium rafters safely out of reach. Bel became their new target, but Michael flashed '2-4' with his fingers and the gengar threw up _protect, _warding off the machamp's flames. Bel followed with what looked like _double-team, _and the sky was filled with grinning gengar.

"Your turn," said Michael.

"My turn?"

Several of the gengar perished in a blaze of orange, grinning at their own demise.

"Why are you battling?"

"It's not important."

"I want to know."

"It's not important, okay!"

Michael raised three fingers. The cloud of gengar cleared instantly and revealed Persi hiding in the mass.

"So it's not important," he said.

_Flamethrower _engulfed the exposed bird moments after, and Bel watched him fall.

Taylor gaped at his cruelty. She felt compelled to hit him, but he looked too much like James and she was too busy screaming for her pokemon. Fifty meters from impact. Forty meters from impact. Thirty meters from impact.

Then Belphegor dived, collecting the broken Persi a second time. She stopped screaming and breathed rapid gasps of air, unclenching her fingers from Michael's half-open shirt.

"Still think I'm your knight?"

She shoved him and returned her pokemon. She waited for him to resume battle but he returned his pokemon as well. Their photos were greyed out on the video board and stamped with a glowing red 'FORFEIT'.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said.

"Wait. You have to explain things. You can't-"

"Tomorrow. Four o'clock."

"I have class at four!" she said.

But he was already out the door.


End file.
